


It isn't an adventure worth telling if there aren't any dragons involved

by CalmBeforeAStorm



Series: Magnus and Max [1]
Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec blushes way too easily, And Isabelle and Clary are just here for the laughs, And so is Jace, M/M, Magnus is a good boyfriend, Maryse is mentioned once or twice, Max is curious, based on the tv series, because they're cool, i mean tiny, komodo dragons, with a tiny bit of book!canon thrown in
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 13:36:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6660250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CalmBeforeAStorm/pseuds/CalmBeforeAStorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec Lightwood didn’t swear much (unless he was drunk on a certain warlock’s infamous party cocktails - or just drunk on the warlock himself, really), but his iron control slipped that morning when he spotted his younger brother Max, book clutched to his chest and glasses askew, making his slow but determined way towards Magnus Bane.<br/>‘Shit’</p>
            </blockquote>





	It isn't an adventure worth telling if there aren't any dragons involved

**Author's Note:**

> My first fic for this fandom (and my first fic in aaaages, if I'm honest). I haven't read the books, just picked up extra info from other fics. I only finished the show a week or two ago and I'm already fifty pages deep into the ao3 tag. That's when you know the ship is real. Please feel free to offer any corrections!  
> Title is a paraphrase of a quote attributed to JRR Tolkien.

Alec liked to think that being a Shadowhunter endowed him with a certain, unshakable confidence. And it did, in a sense.

Picking an enemy off with his bow from a distance of two hundred yards on a dark, rainy night? No problem. Navigating the viper’s nest that was Clave politics? He could handle it. Throwing his parents’ plans for him back in their faces and kissing Magnus Bane at his own wedding? Okay, that one gave him a bit of trouble. But he’d managed in the end, hadn’t he?

With all that had happened in his life recently – his sister’s trial, the near-wedding and aforementioned coming-out, the return of Valentine, the disappearance of his _parabatai_ – Alec figured that there wasn’t much else life could throw at him. But as it happened, life had one last curveball for Alexander Lightwood, and it came at him in the shape of his little brother tugging on Magnus Bane’s coat.

* * *

 

Alec didn’t swear much (unless he was drunk on a certain warlock’s infamous party cocktails - or just drunk on the warlock himself, really), but his iron control slipped that morning when he spotted Max, book clutched to his chest and glasses askew, making his slow but determined way towards Magnus.

‘Shit’

He began to try to weave his way through the Institute’s mid-morning crowd, dodging harried Shadowhunters on their way to training or mission briefings.

It’s not that he didn’t trust Magnus, or want him to meet his brother eventually. He would just prefer if it happened under his own control, at a time when he could sort out what he was going to say in advance. He wasn’t even sure if his brother had ever met a Downworlder, for one thing, let alone a male, glittery warlock currently dating his older brother.

He was sure Magnus was great with kids – he remembered seeing him with that warlock girl the night of Valentine’s massacre in his lair - but Alec felt certain that the mix of Max’s insatiable curiosity and Magnus’ shameless humour could end up being explosive if someone wasn’t there to mediate.

He arrived just in time to grab Max’s shoulders in an effort to steer him away before Magnus, who had been completing his now monthly checks on the Institute’s wards, could turn and see who was tugging on his sleeve. He would have succeeded too, if he hadn’t lingered a second too long to rake his eyes over his boyfriend’s figure – his _ensemble_ of the day being a long, maroon jacket, ripped, black jeans, and maroon-tipped spiked hair with the usual random jewellery added for extra flair. And then Magnus turned to look at him, kohl-ringed eyes creasing in happy surprise, and _really, how was Alec expected to compete with that?_

While he was distracted, Max wriggled free of Alec’s grip and stuck a confident hand out in front of him. Alec sighed inwardly and supposed it was the Angel’s way of punishing him for shamelessly ogling Magnus when there were children – and disapproving parents – around.

‘Hi. I’m Max, Alec’s brother. I usually live in Idris but I’m here for a month to visit Isabelle and Alec and Jace, only Jace isn’t here. You’re the first Downworlder I’ve ever met’

Alec cringed. There was no stopping him now. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Isabelle and Clary stopping on their way to training to watch. For a moment, he contemplated beckoning his sister over to take Max away for a while – let him see the surveillance room, or something – but then Magnus’ familiar laugh caught his attention, and he turned to see him bending slightly at the waist to grasp his brother’s outstretched hand with amused formality.

‘Well, I’m honoured, Max Lightwood. You’re certainly not the first Shadowhunter I’ve met, but you may be the smallest’

Max pouted. ‘Hey, I’m not small! I’m just not fully grown yet. My mother says I could be as tall as Alec some day!’

Magnus cast his glittery gaze towards him, and Alec found himself blushing for no reason at all. Nice to see the old Shadowhunter confidence failing him yet again.

‘You know, I think you could very well be. Would you like that?’

‘Yeah! He can reach all the stuff me and Isabelle and even Jace can’t. It’s pretty cool. But sometimes he bangs his head off things when he isn’t looking properly’

Alec turned another shade darker and grasped at Max’s shoulder again weakly. He could see Isabelle relaying what Max had said to Clary, who brought her hand up to cover her laugh. Magnus seemed tremendously amused by all this.

‘Oh, I’ve seen his clumsiness in action,  _cielo_. Do you know he fell down the stairs of my apartment the other day?’

Alec was now fairly certain he matched the colour of Magnus’ coat. What a pair they made.

He could only thank the Angel that Magnus hadn’t mentioned what they’d been doing that had left Alec dazed enough to fall down those stairs.

Max grinned and pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. ‘That sounds like him. Can I ask you a question? About warlocks?’

‘Max’, Alec hissed.

‘Sure’

He shot a look at Magnus, but he only winked at him before turning his attention back to the youngest Lightwood.

‘You’re really old, right? I heard Mom say so the other day’

Magnus grinned, all glitter and ear piercings. He looked so young, despite what Maryse had apparently said, and Alec felt his heart flutter.

‘Oh she did, did she? She’s right, I am quite old’

Max gave the warlock an imperious once-over. ‘You don’t look old. Also, I read that warlocks have different marks. What’s yours?’

_Oh, Angel!_

The problem, Alec mused, with his parents raising Max in Idris instead of the Institute, was that the boy had never needed to be told that asking about a warlock’s age, or marks, was simply _not done_. He tried to catch Magnus’ eyes to mouth an apology, but found him still smiling at Max.

‘We all have marks, yes. Do you think you can guess mine?’

Alec threw a desperate glance to Isabelle and Clary, still watching from the side-lines. Isabelle shrugged and began, finally, to make her way over. She and Clary arrived just as Max shook his head carefully.

Magnus smile widened. ‘Not many people can. How about a deal? If you tell me what your book is about, I’ll show you’

Max excitedly showed Magnus the front cover. An image of a dragon demon, colourful and extraordinarily detailed – Max’s latest obsession. Alec remembered the disappointment on his brother’s face when Isabelle had gently told him that the dragon demons were nearly extinct.

‘I’ve never seen one, and Alec and Isabelle and Mom say I probably won’t, but I’d really like to some day! They just won’t tell me where to find them’

Isabelle rolled her eyes. ‘And what are you going to do if you see a dragon demon, Max? You’re not big enough to fight one, you know that. Even we’d have trouble doing that’

Max frowned at his sister’s words, and Alec opened his mouth to perhaps soften Isabelle’s statement just a little, but Magnus spoke first.

‘Oh, I don’t think they’re that hard to find, if you know where to look. There are plenty of them where I’m from’

Max’s eyes lit up in excitement, and Magnus grinned back at him. ‘They don’t look exactly like the ones in your book, but I think they’re pretty cool anyway. They can’t fly or breathe fire, but they have scales and long, forked tongues, and they eat deer and horses and other big animals. And they’ll chase you down the beach if you make them angry’

Alec thought the latter sounded like personal experience talking, and he couldn’t stop a smile, trying for a moment to imagine a young Magnus –wide-eyed, not even ten years old, let alone four hundred. It was surprisingly difficult.

‘Wow!’

Max hadn’t looked this excited in a long time, Alec noted. He was always so serious, even more so, at times, than Alec himself (although Isabelle often proclaimed that no one could be more serious than Alexander Lightwood).

‘I can show you if you like!’

Magnus clicked his fingers, and before Alec knew it, a blue hologram-like komodo dragon appeared on the floor next to them. Clary, Isabelle, Alec, and just about any other sane Shadowhunter in the vicinity jumped, but Max just laughed in delight, stepping back carefully as the image of the dragon took one lumbering step towards him, artificial tongue flicking out to taste the air. At a nod from Magnus, he reached out a tentative hand towards the dragon, and looked genuinely surprised when his hand passed through it.

 _His first time seeing magic_ , Alec thought. _Not bad for a first introduction. I really must thank Magnus for this later_. Alec lost himself a little thinking about just what exactly he could do to thank the warlock. When he returned to reality, the apparition was gone, Max was clutching a newly-materialised book on Komodo dragons, and Magnus was giving him a look that suggested that he knew precisely what Alec was thinking about. Feeling the burning in his cheeks, Alec supposed it probably wasn’t that hard to guess. He really needed to get this blushing thing under control.

‘Can I see your mark now?’

Alec, Clary, and Isabelle watched with interest as Magnus crouched down in front of Max.

‘Ready?’

Max grinned, nodded, and Magnus’ glamour slid away, revealing his true, golden eyes; pupils slit vertically, like a cat’s. Max’s mouth fell open, and Alec was jolted out of his admiration of the real, unglamourised Magnus by the fear that Max would say something he shouldn’t.

He needn’t have worried, as it turned out. Max obviously hadn’t been in Idris long enough for the usual Shadowhunter attitude to Downworlders to taint him, a fact of which Alec was infinitely glad. He could only hope the boy’s natural curiosity would keep him that way.

Max laughed, but it was with obvious delight, and the smile that graced Magnus’ face was one of the widest Alec had ever seen. He held his breath as Max reached a hand out to the warlock’s face, tentatively tracing his fingers along Magnus’ kohl-lined eyes, across his eyelids when Magnus shut them.

‘Max!’

They all jumped as Maryse’s voice cut across the room. She was looking for him. He had probably skipped out on a runes lesson or something.

Magnus stood up, hiding his eyes with his usual glamour. Alec consoled himself with the fact that he would see them again later on – Magnus usually let the glamour drop when it was just the two of them at the loft.

‘Well, you’d better go, Max. It was a pleasure being the first Downworlder you’ve ever met. I only hope I didn’t disappoint’

Max surprised them all (even Magnus, judging by the wonderful expression on his face) by throwing his free arm around Magnus’ waist in a quick hug, two books clutched to his chest.

‘No, you definitely didn’t! When we meet again, can you show me more magic?’

Magnus smiled. ‘Of course. We’ll make another bargain. I’ll show you some more magic if you read that book and tell me all about komodo dragons. Deal?’

Max nodded, pushed his glasses back up his face, and ran off with one last grin and a wave.

They all stood for a second, Alec trying to imagine just why he’d been so worried when he’d seen his brother approaching Magnus earlier. Of course it would all be fine, of course Magnus would be wonderful – he was Magnus.

Alec realised he had been smiling dopily at Magnus’ amused face only when, with a delicate cough, Clary stepped forward.

‘So. I believe I heard the words “stairs”, “down”, and “fell” mentioned – not necessarily in that order. Care to tell us about that?’

**Author's Note:**

> Hope someone enjoyed this!
> 
> *October 2017: now on Tumblr! Come find me at calmbeforeastorm.tumblr.com and send me a prompt :)


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